Keyword research is the foundation of search engine optimization (SEO). The goal is to collect a deep well of keyword data that you can access to inform the optimization of your SEO strategies and tactics. Taking the time to do thorough keyword research will ensure your SEO strategy is built on solid data and gives you the best chance of success.
Here we detail a 10-step process for SEO keyword research. Throughout this process, you will generate ideas or “seeds” for your keyword research (steps 1-7). These seeds are essentially parts of keyword phrases that can be combined in various ways in step 6 to create potentially valuable keyword phrases. For example, in the phrase “floral perfume for women”, the seeds are “female”, “floral”, and “perfume”. You can swap these seeds in a different order to create other keyword phrases, or swap one seed for a similar seed. For example, you can replace “woman” with “women” to create a related keyword phrase.
The next steps (steps 8-10) involve gathering and cleansing keyword data. These steps in the keyword research process are the most time-consuming, but the results are worth it. let’s start.
1. Understand your business
First, you need to understand the business and its industry from an insider’s perspective. Who are the biggest competitors? What product lines or services are important to success? What trophy keywords does management want to rank for?
2. Analyze your site
Take the time to thoroughly analyze your site as well as your competitors’ sites. Check the language your company uses and note how it compares to that of your competitors. Differences in wording can provide a rich basis for researching valuable keywords.
3. Get data from Google Ads
Go to Google Ads and select your ad campaign. From there, click Reports, then click Predefined Reports (Dimensions). Select “Basic” and click “Search term”. At this point, download the data from Google Ads.
The first thing to do with your Google Ads data is to filter for branded keywords so you can get a clear picture of non-branded terms that will improve the performance of your paid search campaigns. High-value paid search keyword phrases can help you get more ideas about seeds and keywords to target when doing SEO keyword research.
4. Get data from Google Search Console
Go to Google Search Console and select the account you are trying to get data from.[クエリ]Click the tab and export the data. Exclude branded queries from view and use this organic search data to see what queries people are searching to get to your site. These queries can become potential keywords and can be used to brainstorm seeds for your seed list.
5. Export data from Semrush or other SEO tracking tools
You can use any SEO tracking tool. JumpFly prefers Semrush, so we’ll use that as an example. First, go to “Organic Research” in the left navigation of Semrush. Enter the domain of the site you are trying to keyword research on and press search. Look for the “Top keywords” section and make sure it says “All positions.” Then click “Show all keywords”.
At this point, you can export your data from Semrush as an Excel spreadsheet. Filter out branded queries and use this ranking data to find phrases for which your site already ranks in the top 100. Use these phrases for keyword ideas in your keyword research.
6. Create a seedlist
This keyword seed list is your starting point for keyword research. A seed is just one word within a larger keyword phrase. Remember, this seed list is a tool for brainstorming all relevant seeds and different ways to combine them to form potentially valuable keyword phrases.
Enter all the combinations of terms you want to rank for and start a powerful seed list. Include phrases for competitive analysis and notes about site details. Use query and keyword data from Google Ads, Google Search Console, and Semrush to create your seed list. We also recommend writing down all the anchor text and some descriptors for your navigation links.
Organize your seeds by type. There’s no right or wrong way to do this, but the end goal of this exercise is to combine the seeds by column to form a keyword phrase. Therefore, make sure that all keywords in each column are similar to each other. For example, in the image above, column B lists all synonyms for perfume.
7. Combine seeds of potential keyword phrases
Once the seeds are organized into columns and the initial brainstorming session and analysis are complete, use a tool like Mergewords to combine the seeds from the various columns in a way that is likely to produce meaningful keyword phrases. Some variations of combined columns return phrases that may increase the value of your keywords. Others don’t. Decide which columns to merge by note or type as shown below.
In this example, columns A and B are combined to create keywords such as “Women’s Perfume,” “Women’s Perfume,” “Women’s Fragrance,” and “Women’s Fragrance.” Logical decisions like those in columns C and D produce combinations such as “Fruity 1 oz” and “Floral 6.7 oz.”
Combine at least two columns, but it’s useful to combine three columns to collect long-tail keywords. Copy all the combinations from your spreadsheet into each of her three boxes in Mergewords, click “Merge” and you’ll see a nice list of combined phrases. The example below combines columns A and B to create 35 phrases that may or may not have keyword values.
Combining the three columns as shown below quickly generates hundreds or even thousands of keyword possibilities.
Copy the merged phrase to a new column in your seed spreadsheet. Once all possible column combinations have been combined, as shown below, you are ready to move on to the next step and start collecting keyword data.
8. Enter the combined seeds into Google Keyword Planner
Use Google Ads to convert consolidated keyword seeds into numerical keyword data. First, open both your spreadsheet seed list and Google’s Keyword Planner, ideally in two screens.
Within the Google Ads interface,[新しいキーワードを見つける]Click. This will take you to Google Keyword Planner. Copy and paste the combined seeds (the new columns you added to the seed list after combining the seed columns) 10 at a time into the search box. This is the maximum number of keyword suggestions you can enter.
When you click Get Results, Google Keyword Planner displays the past year’s data with graphical trend lines. Below you can get a glimpse of the data and keywords found based on your seeds.
You can expand the scope of your keyword queries by adding suggestions to the top of the graph. You can use the filters in the right panel to include or exclude specific keyword ideas based on the 10 keyword suggestions you entered into the tool. These selected filters ensure that the results searched by Google Keyword Planner more closely match her targeted SEO keywords. Results are automatically updated based on your selection of inclusions or exclusions.
Download your keyword suggestions as a .csv file. Clean and repeat for the rest of your seed list, 10 phrases at a time (the maximum you can enter in Google Ads).
With thousands of seeds, this process can become tedious. Don’t panic; keep going. We promise the results will be worth it. Spend some time relaxing by playing some calming music or listening to a relaxing podcast. Once you get used to it, you will be able to enter more than 2,000 entries per hour. This important step takes time to complete, but the resulting data is invaluable to his SEO strategy.
9. Combine all .csv files into one spreadsheet
Almost completed! There may be hundreds of .csv files in your downloads folder. Use this Excel technique to combine all files into one.
Go to File Explorer and copy all the downloaded files. They all start with “keyword statistics.” Create a new folder in your C drive called “merge” and paste all your .csv files there.
Rather than manually copying and merging each spreadsheet into one (which can take hours and is more likely to make mistakes), you can use Excel to copy all the .csv files. into one spreadsheet.
Go to Data and select Get Data. Select “From File” and then “From Folder”. Now select the “Join” folder you created. This is where all keyword downloads are stored.
Make sure all the files you want to merge are in the “Merge” folder, click on that folder and click “Open”. A box will appear. Click the dropdown arrow that says “Combine” and select “Combine and Load.” This function will merge all files.
This is a spreadsheet of keyword research data.
Ten. Clean up your keyword research Excel spreadsheet
Your keyword research is complete. Don’t you think it’s very pretty? No? Now, let’s clean it up right away. Save the .csv file as an .xlsx Excel workbook. Go to cell B4 to start cleaning the data and freeze the pane. Next, add a filter to row 3.
Filter column C (Average Monthly Searches) from maximum to minimum to get a clear picture of what your users are searching for. At this point, you need to remove the duplicate header rows caused by merging so many spreadsheets into one document.
To remove duplicate header rows, select Text Filter, select Contains, and enter Keyword to filter column A.
You will get a view showing a list of duplicate header rows like below.
Delete these lines. Clear the filter for column A. Repeat this process by entering the name of the month in which you downloaded your keyword data. Remove these duplicate header rows as well and remove the filter from column A.
Because you merged so many .csv files, there may be many duplicate keywords in multiple files. Deduplicate column A to remove all duplicate keyword rows.
Unrelated keywords may appear in your data, but you can choose to clean them up or leave all your data as is. However, deleting individual rows of data from a spreadsheet with tens of thousands of rows is not a very worthwhile task. Using Excel’s filtering features, you can find the valuable keywords you’re looking for on a particular page and ignore irrelevant data that may have slipped in during the research process.
Using keyword data
Once you complete these 10 steps, you’ll have tons of SEO keyword data at your fingertips. This keyword research will help you optimize all the important pieces of the SEO puzzle, including title tags, meta descriptions, and the content that appears on each page such as H1 headings and copy. Keyword research is also fundamental to blog optimization. This is the foundation for everything you do for your SEO strategy.
But keyword research can also be used by more teams to enhance their strategies. After all, keyword research is a peek into what real people care about enough to search for it. You may want to share your data with paid search professionals, social media teams, writers, and other marketers who manage Google Ads. We’ve spent a lot of time compiling this treasure trove of customer research. Let’s share that wealth.
Use this rich keyword data to map keywords to pages on your site when developing an on-page SEO strategy, or when there is strong demand for a keyword but no content currently exists to target that demand. You can now identify gaps. For helpful tips on how to assign keywords to specific pages for optimization, see the post 5 Steps to Map Your SEO Keywords for Content Optimization.
